Rally Ireland: Subaru preview

The event
Following the long-haul trip to Japan at the end of last month, November
takes the Subaru World Rally Team closer to home, to Rally Ireland and
the penultimate round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. A new
addition to the WRC ...

The event

Following the long-haul trip to Japan at the end of last month, November
takes the Subaru World Rally Team closer to home, to Rally Ireland and
the penultimate round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. A new
addition to the WRC calendar, this year is the first that Rally Ireland
has been run as a World Rally Championship round.

There are only 18,000 inhabitants in the small west coast town of Sligo,
home to Rally HQ and the service park. It is located approx 200km from
Belfast, which plays host to the event-opening Super Special in the
grounds of Stormont castle. The last asphalt outing of the year, the
stages are unusually bumpy, quite unlike any other sealed surface rally
and will make for an unique challenge.
Secondhand World Rally Cars are prolific in Ireland, and no fewer than 36
of these cars are on the entry list. Among them, Subarus have enjoyed
great success, this year dominating the Irish Tarmac Championship and
claiming the top four spots in the overall standings. As the WRC comes to
town, thousands of enthusiastic spectators are expected to follow the
action.

The weather in November is as you might expect -- unpredictable with the
ever-present chance of rain. The surface is usually damp, and a mix of
asphalt and gravel, meaning the cars are setup in a totally different way
to any other asphalt event. Tyre choice will be critical with the
changing conditions, and the very narrow routes and high speed mean it
will be easy to make mistakes. Despite the fact that dusk will fall at
around 1630hrs, the short spectator stage in Belfast will be the only
stage that the lead WRC cars will start in the dark.

A pilot event was run last year that featured stages winding through
similar areas to this year's route, however the exact stages have not
been rallied before. Totally new is the spectator Super Special stage in
Stormont, Belfast which starts the rally on Thursday evening. The second
section of leg one, the trickiest of the rally, commences from Sligo on
Friday.

Although the total liaison distance is only 853.91km (excluding travel to
Belfast for SS1), the event route takes in eight counties, both to the
north and the south of the island, and crosses between Ulster and the
Republic of Ireland, making it a very diverse event.

Chris competed on Rally Ireland last year so has an idea of what the
conditions can be like, but Petter and Xevi have no experience of Irish
asphalt.

Entries

Three Subaru World Rally Team Impreza WRC2007s are entered for the
fifteenth round of the 2007 WRC calendar. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills will
drive car number seven, Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot will drive number
eight, and Spanish duo Xevi Pons/Xavier Amigo will be in car number 14.

Driver quotes

Richard Taylor, Subaru World Rally Team managing director: "We haven't
had the opportunity to test in Ireland this year, but we have the benefit
of knowledge gained by the many customer cars that are running and
winning in Ireland. We know it's going to be a great challenge with very
different tarmac roads to any other round and we're looking forward to
it. It will be very exciting that there will likely be more Subaru WRC
cars than at any other World Championship rally. I hope that we and all
the other Subaru entries will put on a strong performance for the fans."

Paul Howarth, Subaru World Rally Team operations director: "Rally
Ireland is very different to a normal Irish tarmac event, as they've
come up with an unique route. It's very narrow, only one car width in
places, and very high speed, especially in the beginning section. There
are a lot of junctions and switchbacks from main roads to narrow back
routes. The roads are often damp, and it is very easy to go off. Two
elements will be absolutely critical: tyre choice and staying on the
road. It's very hard to maintain tyre temperature, and as it's so
narrow there is only one line. All it takes is to touch the grass with
the rear and the car will be instantly sideways. It's so unforgiving,
and if the pace is fast then we can expect a similar rate of attrition to
Japan."

CAR NUMBER 7

Petter Solberg: "I have never rallied in Ireland before so it will be
very new for me, but I am looking forward to it. The fans in Ireland are
rally-mad which is really good. It's always nice to drive in front of
people who are really into it. It would have been good to do a few
rallies earlier in the year to get a feel for the surface, but still we
prepare and focus 110 per cent. It will be very interesting I think,
especially with the chance that the 2007 championship can be decided
there."

CAR NUMBER 8

Chris Atkinson: "Rally Ireland is a totally different event, not just in
terms of the bumpy surface. Being a new round it's very difficult to
prepare for. We've driven the route in a Group N car, but the extra
speed of the WRC car is bound to make it very different. When everything
comes up faster, it becomes more difficult as you have to process the
information faster, and when it is all new that is the hard part. The
surface is half asphalt and half gravel, which means we have to use an
unique setup. We actually set the car up for the wet to get the
compromise between the two surfaces, and the high chance of rain. Rather
than when the asphalt gets wet and slippery, it's when the asphalt is
totally dry that you lose time."

CAR NUMBER 14

Xevi Pons: "I haven't been to Ireland before so it's another new
weekend for me. Ok, it will be a hard rally and very slippery, so it will
be easy to make a mistake but I will push as hard as I can. We haven't
done any testing there so I don't really know what to expect from the
conditions, but I still prepare in the same way as any rally, and learn
as fast as I can from the recce days."

Between the rallies

Chris and Petter stayed on in Japan for media functions for the recent
launch of the Impreza WRX STi road car. The pair then travelled to the UK
for pre-event testing at the beginning of the month. Phil Mills, Stephane
Prevot, and the duo of Xevi and Xavier Amigo all spent time at home.